Sunday, October 28, 2007

What a perfect way to spend a morning! Simi Cycling Center and Cannondale hosted a demo day at Simi Valley last weekend and we had a group ride and BBQ after. It's such a great place to ride and for sure I want to go back. Here are a couple of group photos they sent. I love my Lefty!

Just want to thank Greg at Simi Cycling Center and the rest of the gang that helped out. It was a great ride and great to meet everyone!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

I'll work on a story this weekend but wanted to say this for now....there were almost 3000 racers!! It's hot, technical, and it would probably be best NOT to do a 3 day stage race the weekend before the Chupacabras 100km in order to do well.

Monday, October 08, 2007

The inaugral 3 stage 2-person team race called the "El Reto del Quetzal" rolled out early Friday morning from the steamy city of San Juan Sacatepequez. The race venue included a beautiful historical rustic road near Salama known as the "colonial route" and passed through the towns of Rabinal and San Miguel Chicaj. The route included dense forests, plains, natural springs, streams, and river passages across a countryside spotted with ancient Spanish churches. The territory is inhabited by the pre-Columbian people called the poqomchies who curiously greeted the racers as they passed by.

Athletes finished the race three days and 165 miles later in the colonial town of Coban, Guatemala.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Tinker Juarez (USA) and Heiner Morales (Guatemala) raced together on team Cannondale-Bike Center and placed a strong second in the Open Men category. Tinker's brief update included how beautiful the country was and how good the competitors were. Tinker said, "It's incredibly beautiful here and it's a great race venue. I'm already looking forward to coming back next year."

Check out the great story on Bicycleretailer.com about the Cannondale demo rides at Interbike.Cannondale Goes Red at InterbikeLAS VEGAS, NV (BRAIN)—Each year everyone from the bicycle community congregate in the halls of the Sands Convention Center to get a look at what’s new for next year. For three days dealers and their staff frantically scurry from booth to booth trying to keep appointments in order to see, touch and hear about the latest product and why they should bring them to the sales floor.

One company absent from the convention halls this year was Cannondale, largely due to the fact that the company showed its dealers the new 2008 line months ago in Morgantown, WV. During the presentation dealers interacted with engineers, product managers and graphic designers. At the conclusion of each day dealers were able to ride the product with Cannondale staffers as well as the athletes they support. This way they could feel how the product performed while encouraging them to ask questions.

Putting a huge emphasis on test rides Cannondale participated in the Outdoor demo in Bootleg Canyon for the first two days of the show with close to 200 test bikes. Then, in an effort to allow dealers and even general public a chance to ride the new line, Cannondale took its entire fleet of demo bikes to the beautiful Red Rock Resort for the final three days of the show. Organized road rides left the resort on an incredibly scenic 28 mile loop through Red Rock Canyon. The ride offered around 1000 feet of climbing on top of a double wide asphalt road that is one-way, where you can dive into corners without worrying about running into anything unexpected.

Cannondale hosted organized rides Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning starting at 7 a.m. and finishing up at 9 a.m. Two 15 passenger vans shuttles were run each morning down the Las Vegas strip doing pick ups as well as returning riders back to the strip in time for a quick shower and into the show feeling fresh.

Each of the three morning rides left with close to 40 riders and their choice to ride the new SuperSix, SystemSix, Synapse SL or Slice Tri bikes.Test rides didn’t end there as Cannondale also organized night rides Wednesday and Thursday through Blue Diamond Park lead by 2007 24 Hour Solo World Champion Tinker Juarez. Again shuttle rides were provided while the good folks from NiteRider outfitted the all new full carbon Scalpels, Rush Carbons, Taurines and 29’ers on hand with systems lighting up the trails.

Garmin also got involved supplying bikes with GPS systems to insure nobody got lost while SoBe provided hydration for all. With all sorts of nightly activities going on in Sin City Cannondale had tremendous turnouts for these rides, hosting 55 riders on Wednesday night's ride and nearly 40 riders on the Thursday night ride. Each night was followed up with a pizza party.

“Of course there are going to be cancellations and no shows for rides but I was pleased that for every one who didn’t make it someone else showed up unannounced who heard about the rides through word of mouth," said Bill Rudell, marketing manager for Cannondale.“For a first year event I couldn’t be any happier. Seeing the smiles on everyone’s face during the morning road rides made it all worth while," Rudell said. "Let’s face it, Vegas has a lot to offer but we’re cyclists and never before during the show have you been able to experience riding a brand new bike in such an incredible setting. After each ride I was continually asked: 'is Cannondale going to do this every year? This was the best way to start/finish my day during the show that I have ever had.'”

For a first hand look at the road ride check out http://www.testrider.com/fly.aspx?layout=player&video=2.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Proud to be "Made in America"! See the latest news from Cannondale:Cannondale Spotted A 2007 InterBike Show

Posted on October 3, 2007 11:22:03 AMFront and center as always was the great product from the SRAM team and at the center of their booth wasn't a hot new XC design or the bike of the World Champ as you may expect, but a commuter. A commuter bike? Not just any city cruiser this is the revolutionary Cannondale"ON" bicycle. The "ON" bike is the work of the Cannondale advanced concept design group, led by Chris Dodman. The "ON" project uses a revolutionary new singlesided rear with an enclosed SRAM drive system "mated" up front to a Righty.

The race proven Lefty design was turned 180 into a Righty to allow the innovative center hinge to fold the rear and front wheel perfectly together for transit or storage. Looking down "ON" the action in the SRAM booth was a 2008 PERP, collaborating on the paint and graphics this raw aluminum swingarn, frame and fork received the same galvanized finish.

Equipped with the latest Avid Code's, Truvative bits and an awesome 180mm of perfect 1.5 singlecrown plushness up front with the Rock Shox Totem the PERP turned its share of heads. Across the show the new System Six was spotted at SRM, the power meter leaders, with their SI crank mounted version that comes stock on the Liquigas team bike.Further into the show, Garmin was showing off the new 705 GPS unit keeping riders informed and ontrack with its new big screen aboard a Super Six. Look a little further and not only Cannondale product is being shown off, but their technology as well.

Guatemala will host a new three-day stage race called El Reto del Quetzal from October 5 to 7 for teams of two in open men, open women, mixed, and masters categories. It will start in San Juan Sacatepequez and finish three days later in Coban while passing through semi-desert areas, tropical rain forests, and through the clouds and dense fog of Coban.

Trek VW's Sue Haywood, who was on the women's winning team at the TransRockies, and Lea Davison are favorites set to compete in the women's race. Tinker Juarez (Cannondale) and 2006 Pan Am Champion Deiber Esquivel are among those that will contest the men's race.